Page 59 of Facade

Heath waved his wand to drop the wards, leading the way inside. Rascal was thrilled to have company, weaving around their legs, and meowing happily with as much affection as the cat lavished on Heath.

Taking a moment to push up his sleeve, Heath admired the intricate mark that reminded him of a Celtic design. It was beautiful. He stopped in the kitchen to get a bottle of water, then turned to face his guests.

“Can I get either of you something to drink?” Heath asked.

She shook her head in silent refusal of a beverage. Jace had taken his helmet off, leaving it in the mudroom, but the woman still wore hers. It was strange.

“A beer would be great, if you have one,” Jace said.

Heath pulled two locally-brewed ales out of the fridge. 007 had the right of it. This night definitely called for alcoholic beverages.

Jace turned to the woman who looked like she was thinking about running for the door. This was a rather unsettling and unusual situation, but wasn’t she happy to have bonded someone? She still seemed manly to Heath, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

“I know you’re freaking out, and you’ve been through the wringer,” Jace said in a soft, soothing tone Heath had never heard from him before. “But you wouldn’t have bonded Heath if he wasn’t trustworthy.”

After a slow, jerky nod, the helmet came off, and Heath was staring in shocked confusion at Clark Voudrie. How did this make sense? He wasn’t gay, or even bi, but Clark was a man.

Heath had always been very aware of Clark without knowing why. That had to have been the influence of the inactive bond. He still didn’t comprehend why they would have bonded, though.

“Hi,” Clark said with an awkward wave.

“I don’t understand.”

“You will. I think we should sit down for this conversation,” Jace said.

“Wait, wait. I need to eat. Are you guys hungry? You can talk while I cook,” Heath said. “And you can drop the weird voice, Jace. No one else can hear you.”

“Actually, I can’t,” Jace disagreed. “It will be several hours before the potion wears off.”

“We both took a potion to change our voices,” Clark said. And his, her voice did sound different. “Do you have any wine? I could use a glass.”

“Yeah, hang on,” Heath said.

He wasn’t into wine, but Nadine liked it, so he tended to keep a couple of bottles on hand. Grabbing a bottle of Pinot Grigio, Heath opened it, poured a glass, and handed it to her, him? This was so confusing.

Jace uncapped his ale and took a swig before speaking, “It’s a long story, but we should start at the beginning.”

007 did most of the talking, with Clark adding occasional details. Heath was so stunned that he kept forgetting he was supposed to be cooking, and just stared at them before getting back to the task at hand.

Clark and Jace had both removed their jumpsuits at some point during the explanation. Seeing them in normal clothes made it feel more like a friendly get-together, which helped him focus.

When the casserole was finally in the oven, Heath led them to the living room. “Let me see if I’m following, here,” he said. “Your dad went missing, and you had a vision of Mars, prompting you to disguise yourself as a man, and apply for the monitor position. You and Jace have been friends since you were kids, so he offered to mentor you, planning to help search for your dad. You’re also mates, but didn’t know it until you met here.”

“Yeah, it seemed crazy to me that I found one mate here. But two? I’m still reeling,” Clarke said.

Her seeming manly, and fooling everyone on campus made sense now that Heath realized she had charms, a potion, and tailored clothing to pull it off. It was still strange, but logical.

Clarke had explained that the degrees and teaching experience were legitimate. She had simply dropped the E from the end of her name, and gotten an ID showing her gender as male. With that having been said, she seemed more at ease in his company.

Heath hadn’t been worried about that. Clarke was obviously an excellent teacher, who knew her subjects well. He was already thinking of ways to get her a position at Venus when her dad was located, and this was over.

That would be ideal, with him and 007 working at Mars. As a mated male, Jace wouldn’t continue as a monitor. But Dean Stanhope would happily offer him a fulltime teaching position.

“I knew you had at least one more mate, because your mark was open on the bottom, when mine is closed,” Jace said. “But you had so much on your plate already, worrying about Charlie. I should have said something. You probably would have been calmer when you bonded Heath if you had been expecting to bond another mate.”

“Jace, it’s ok. I understand why you didn’t say anything,” Clarke assured him. “Multiple mate bonds happen. I should have expected it anyway.”

“A mate mark was one of the first things that popped into my head when you suddenly started wearing muscle shirts, Jace. Then, I figured I had to be wrong, because you’d be proud, and show the mark off.”